The Role of Psychosocial Resource Loss in Psychological Health after a Flood Disaster: A Retrospective Study of Adjustment in Flood Victims in Southwest Nigeria

The Role of Psychosocial Resource Loss in Psychological Health after a Flood Disaster: A Retrospective Study of Adjustment in Flood Victims in Southwest Nigeria

Natural disaster such as flood brings heavy toll on the emotional and mental strength of its victims. Unfortunately, the emergency preparedness and responsiveness of the authority is not often adequate and even sometimes unavailable to the survivors and consequently leading to a mental health of the survivors. Therefore, this study is interested in the role of psychosocial resource loss in psychological health of flood victims in Nigeria. The study used a retrospective survey design and a total of 52 respondents were used in two flood sites. The participants were measured on sociodemographics, resource loss, and psychological distress.
The study found out that there was no significant difference between low resource loss and high resource loss on psychological distress among flood victim t (41)=-0.451, p>0.05. That there was no significant interaction between sex and resource loss on psychological distress F (1,16)=1.408, p>0.05. There was significant moderate negative relationship between sex and psychological distress r=-0.521, p<0.05. However, there was no significant relationship between age and psychological distress (r=-0.180, p>0.05); between educational level and psychological distress (r=-0.241, p>0.05); between resource loss and psychological distress (r=0.198, p>0.05). There was significant interaction between survivors who are older with lower educational status having significantly higher psychological distress than flood survivors who are younger with higher educational status F (2,12)=6.168, p<0.05. There was significant joint influence of age, sex, and educational level on psychological distress, R2=0.430, F (3,16)=4.016, p<0.05.
In most disasters, the focus is often on women and children however the focus should be on the younger population with higher educational qualification and screening for mental health issues after a disaster.